Jim Clark Hard at Work.

I have this image in my head of Jim Clark easily and effortlessly winning race after race. Nearly every photo I’ve seen of the man after a race is of his smiling face as he celebrates with his crew or the other drivers—not of him slumped and tired and broken down after the strain of a race.

The look of concentration in his face in this photo confirms that it wasn’t just a leisurely drive the led to his victories. It reminds me that just because someone is good at something, it doesn’t mean it’s easy for them.

As an aside: While we can all agree that full-face helmets are safer, what a shame that we’ll never see a photo like this of Vettel or Alonso or Hamilton. Not visibly seeing their struggle just plays into this fantasy of the robotic, efficient driving machine that never breaks a sweat. That’s just Räikkönen.

Clark won the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps 4 times–in a row!–and was reputed to hate the course. Schumacher has won Spa more times, but I’ll bet not as a percentage of his entries. Hard to know who/what was more impressive: Clark or the Lotus 25/33/49’s. Together, they were awesome.

Fantastic photo agreed. Must disagree on one thing tho – why would anyone WANT to see hamilton’s face…? or probably any of the other sponsor drones sitting in the F1 ‘cars’ of today? [they’d just cover their faces with stickers anyway…]